smaller work, which was translated into English (1831) as the Elements of Greek Accentuation; and of his Correspondence with Goethe (published 1880).
See memoirs by C. Nipperdey, his colleague at Jena (1869), G. Lothholz (Stargard, 1876), K. Fischer (preface to the Opuscula Academica), and C. Bursian in Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, ix.
GOTTSCHALK [Godescalus, Gottescale], (c. 808–867?),
German theologian, was born near Mainz, and was devoted
(oblatus) from infancy by his parents,—his father was a Saxon,
Count Bern,—to the monastic life. He was trained at the
monastery of Fulda, then under the abbot Hrabanus Maurus, and
became the friend of Walafrid Strabo and Loup of Ferrières. In
June 829, at the synod of Mainz, on the pretext that he had been
unduly constrained by his abbot, he sought and obtained his
liberty, withdrew first to Corbie, where he met Ratramnus, and
then to the monastery of Orbais in the diocese of Soissons.
There he studied St Augustine, with the result that he became an
enthusiastic believer in the doctrine of absolute predestination, in
one point going beyond his master—Gottschalk believing in a
predestination to condemnation as well as in a predestination to
salvation, while Augustine had contented himself with the
doctrine of preterition as complementary to the doctrine of
election. Between 835 and 840 Gottschalk was ordained priest,
without the knowledge of his bishop, by Rigbold, chorepiscopus of
Reims. Before 840, deserting his monastery, he went to Italy,
preached there his doctrine of double predestination, and entered
into relations with Notting, bishop of Verona, and Eberhard,
count of Friuli. Driven from Italy through the influence of
Hrabanus Maurus, now archbishop of Mainz, who wrote two
violent letters to Notting and Eberhard, he travelled through
Dalmatia, Pannonia and Norica, but continued preaching and
writing. In October 848 he presented to the synod at Mainz a
profession of faith and a refutation of the ideas expressed by
Hrabanus Maurus in his letter to Notting. He was convicted,
however, of heresy, beaten, obliged to swear that he would never
again enter the territory of Louis the German, and handed over
to Hincmar, archbishop of Reims, who sent him back to his
monastery at Orbais. The next year at a provincial council at
Quierzy, presided over by Charles the Bald, he attempted to
justify his ideas, but was again condemned as a heretic and
disturber of the public peace, was degraded from the priesthood,
whipped, obliged to burn his declaration of faith, and shut up in
the monastery of Hautvilliers. There Hincmar tried again to
induce him to retract. Gottschalk however continued to defend
his doctrine, writing to his friends and to the most eminent
theologians of France and Germany. A great controversy resulted.
Prudentius, bishop of Troyes, Wenilo of Sens, Ratramnus of
Corbie, Loup of Ferrières and Florus of Lyons wrote in his
favour. Hincmar wrote De praedestinatione and De una non
trina deitate against his views, but gained little aid from
Johannes Scotus Erigena, whom he had called in as an authority.
The question was discussed at the councils of Kiersy (853), of
Valence (855) and of Savonnières (859). Finally the pope
Nicolas I. took up the case, and summoned Hincmar to the
council of Metz (863). Hincmar either could not or would not
appear, but declared that Gottschalk might go to defend himself
before the pope. Nothing came of this, however, and when
Hincmar learned that Gottschalk had fallen ill, he forbade him
the sacraments or burial in consecrated ground unless he would
recant. This Gottschalk refused to do. He died on the 30th of
October between 866 and 870.
Gottschalk was a vigorous and original thinker, but also of a violent temperament, incapable of discipline or moderation in his ideas as in his conduct. He was less an innovator than a reactionary. Of his many works we have only the two professions of faith (cf. Migne, Patrologia Latina, cxxi. c. 347 et seq.), and some poems, edited by L. Traube in Monumenta Germaniae historica: Poëtae Latini aevi Carolini (t. iii. 707–738). Some fragments of his theological treatises have been preserved in the writings of Hincmar, Erigena, Ratramnus and Loup of Ferrières.
From the 17th century, when the Jansenists exalted Gottschalk, much has been written on him. Mention may be made of two recent studies, F. Picavet, “Les Discussions sur la liberté au temps de Gottschalk, de Raban Maur, d’Hincmar, et de Jean Scot,” in Comptes rendus de l’acad. des sciences morales et politiques (Paris, 1896); and A. Freystedt, “Studien zu Gottschalks Leben und Lehre,” in Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte (1897), vol. xviii.
GOTTSCHALL, RUDOLF VON (1823–1909), German man of
letters, was born at Breslau on the 30th of September 1823, the
son of a Prussian artillery officer. He received his early education
at the gymnasia in Mainz and Coburg, and subsequently at
Rastenburg in East Prussia. In 1841 he entered the university
of Königsberg as a student of law, but, in consequence of his
pronounced liberal opinions, was expelled. The academic
authorities at Breslau and Leipzig were not more tolerant
towards the young fire-eater, and it was only in Berlin that he
eventually found himself free to prosecute his studies. During
this period of unrest he issued Lieder der Gegenwart (1842) and
Zensurflüchtlinge (1843)—the poetical fruits of his political
enthusiasm. He completed his studies in Berlin, took the degree
of doctor juris in Königsberg, and endeavoured to obtain there the
venia legendi. His political views again stood in the way, and
forsaking the legal career, Gottschall now devoted himself entirely
to literature. He met with immediate success, and beginning as
dramaturge in Königsberg with Der Blinde von Alcala (1846) and
Lord Byron in Italien (1847) proceeded to Hamburg where he
occupied a similar position. In 1852 he married Marie, baroness
von Seherr-Thoss, and for the next few years lived in Silesia.
In 1862 he took over the editorship of a Posen newspaper, but in
1864 removed to Leipzig. Gottschall was raised, in 1877, by the
king of Prussia to the hereditary nobility with the prefix “von,”
having been previously made a Geheimer Hofrat by the grand duke
of Weimar. Down to 1887 Gottschall edited the Brockhaus’sche
Blätter für litterarische Unterhaltung and the monthly periodical
Unsere Zeit. He died at Leipzig on the 21st of March 1909.
Gottschall’s prolific literary productions cover the fields of poetry, novel-writing and literary criticism. Among his volumes of lyric poetry are Sebastopol (1856), Janus (1873), Bunte Blüten (1891). Among his epics, Carlo Zeno (1854), Maja (1864), dealing with an episode in the Indian Mutiny, and Merlins Wanderungen (1887). The comedy Pitt und Fox (1854), first produced on the stage in Breslau, was never surpassed by the other lighter pieces of the author, among which may be mentioned Die Welt des Schwindels and Der Spion von Rheinsberg. The tragedies, Mazeppa, Catharine Howard, Amy Robsart and Der Götze von Venedig, were very successful; and the historical novels, Im Banne des schwarzen Adlers (1875; 4th ed., 1884), Die Erbschaft des Blutes (1881), Die Tochter Rübezahls (1889), and Verkümmerte Existenzen (1892), enjoyed a high degree of popularity. As a critic and historian of literature Gottschall has also done excellent work. His Die deutsche Nationalliteratur des 19. Jahrhunderts (1855; 7th ed., 1901–1902), and Poetik (1858; 6th ed., 1903) command the respect of all students of literature.
Gottschall’s collected Dramatische Werke appeared in 12 vols. in 1880 (2nd ed., 1884); he has also, in recent years, published many volumes of collected essays and criticisms. See his autobiography, Aus meiner Jugend (1898).
GOTTSCHED, JOHANN CHRISTOPH (1700–1766), German
author and critic, was born on the 2nd of February 1700, at
Judithenkirch near Königsberg, the son of a Lutheran clergyman.
He studied philosophy and history at the university of his native
town, but immediately on taking the degree of Magister in 1723,
fled to Leipzig in order to evade impressment in the Prussian
military service. Here he enjoyed the protection of J. B.
Mencke (1674–1732), who, under the name of “Philander von
der Linde,” was a well-known poet and also president of the
Deutschübende poetische Gesellschaft in Leipzig. Of this society
Gottsched was elected “Senior” in 1726, and in the next year
reorganized it under the title of the Deutsche Gesellschaft. In
1730 he was appointed extraordinary professor of poetry, and,
in 1734, ordinary professor of logic and metaphysics in the
university. He died at Leipzig on the 12th of December 1766.
Gottsched’s chief work was his Versuch einer kritischen Dichtkunst für die Deutschen (1730), the first systematic treatise in German on the art of poetry from the standpoint of Boileau. His Ausführliche Redekunst (1728) and his Grundlegung einer
